


A Lovely Tactical Emergency

by fuzzytomato



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-17
Updated: 2011-10-17
Packaged: 2017-10-24 17:40:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/266137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuzzytomato/pseuds/fuzzytomato
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a Space AU. written for lukita based on her prompt of Merlin is a super genius working his little heart away on some important thing. While Arthur is a bodyguard/lab assistance? who is secretly/not so secretly? in love with him.. thanks to gwyntastic for the title.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Lovely Tactical Emergency

The ship rocked beneath Arthur’s feet as it took another blast, this time to the starboard side, and he watched in horror as his console lights flickered. The view screen in front of them did the same, wavy lines and snow for a horrifying moment before it wavered back to normal still showing the three ships that surrounded them.

“We’re losing power!” Morgana shouted from the Captain’s chair.

Arthur would’ve given her some scathing retort about her observational skills but he was too busy trying to stay on his feet as the metal deck plate pitched beneath him.

“Escape maneuvers, Gwen,” Morgana commanded, voice a bit breathy, a hint of fear undercutting her usually authoritative tone.

“Aye, Captain.” Gwen quickly flicked some switches and toggles on her display. “Hold on.”

Gwen slammed forward on her controls shoving the ship into some sort of dive to try and escape the three hostiles. Arthur was already launching defenses behind them when Morgana gave the order. It didn’t help though. The hostiles had superior technology. The Avalon’s torpedoes hadn’t been able to penetrate their thick shields and her defenses would be no match against their firepower.

Minutes later, another blast rocked them, hitting the aft. Sparks skittered in the air, across the deck plate from all the consoles. Arthur miraculously remained standing but no one else on the bridge did.

Leon and Gwaine pulled themselves up, both groaning, Gwaine sporting a bleeding cut across the bridge of his nose.

The ship itself made a sputtering sound, a dying cough-like noise that made the hair on Arthur’s arms raise.

“We’ve lost the port engine. The starboard is at eighty percent!” Leon yelled, above the horrible sound of the ship shuddering around them, as close to panic as Arthur had ever heard him.

Merlin’s disembodied voice came over the com. “Uh…I could use a little help down here!”

“Merlin! Are you alright?” Arthur yelled back.

Morgana gave him a stern look but he didn’t care. They were most likely going to explode and Arthur would be damned if chains of command were going to keep him from making sure Merlin was uninjured for the time being. He may have been a little over-invested but Merlin was his friend, his intelligent, gorgeous, genius friend and Arthur didn’t have many of those.

“Well, everything is on fire, kind of, and if we want to run away, which I assume we want to run away, right?”

“Yes, we want to run away!” Morgana snapped.

“Oh, well then, I need some help.”

Knowing Merlin’s penchant for understatement, Arthur stepped forward immediately and Morgana gave him an assessing look.

“Gwaine, take over tactical. Arthur, go assist our resident genius.”

Arthur didn’t look back as he ran off the bridge.

The Avalon wasn’t big by any means but it wasn’t tiny either. He had to go down five decks to get to Merlin and with the way the ship was rocking and the power flickering, it would be easier to go down the ladders than a lift. It took him way more time than he would’ve liked.

Merlin’s area was a mess. Tools and gadgets were strewn everywhere. Half of the space was smoldering, smoke thick, because with minimal power the air recyclers weren’t working to capacity. Arthur really didn’t want to think about that because a death due to life support failure was not pretty and not high on Arthur’s list of ways to die in space. He’d much rather be blown up, and with their current situation, that was an option too.

“Merlin!” he called, stepping through the doorway and over a mass of wires that looked potentially dangerous.

“Arthur?” Merlin yelled back. “I’m here.”

Merlin emerged from a small space in the wall, his slim body sliding through the tunnel with ease. His coveralls were stained, his pale face almost black with ash, his blue eyes all the more vibrant because of it. A damp, bright red stain was spreading down Merlin’s arm, leaking through his sleeve. Arthur’s heart clenched at the sight.

“Merlin! Your arm!”

Merlin looked down as if seeing it for the first time and shrugged. “Just a scratch.” He stepped forward until he was toe to toe with Arthur, his breathing ragged, his eyes wide. “I can fix it,” he said. “I can fix it. I just need you to put out the fires.”

“Merlin, we can’t fight back.”

Merlin shook his head. “We can’t, but we can run.”

“Not with only one engine.”

Merlin smiled, cheeky, and cocked his head and Arthur knew he could put his trust in that smile. “The Avalon is the fastest ship in this quadrant and I am a genius.”

The Avalon rocked again, beneath their feet, but in the bowels of the ship it felt more like a gentle sway than the chaos it was on the bridge.

“Well, just in case.” Arthur grabbed the lapels of Merlin’s coveralls, fisted both hands in the greasy fabric and hauled Merlin in. He kissed him, a mash of mouths, an urgent press of lips and tongue and teeth. Merlin’s hands found purchase on Arthur’s shoulders and he shivered against Arthur, like a ship breaking apart. Arthur put everything he had into the clutch of his hands, the movement of his mouth, all his longing and affection that he would never have voiced, even if Morgana had commanded it. Merlin already owned his heart and now he had his faith as well.

They broke away when the proximity klaxon started blaring.

“They are trying to board us,” Arthur said, staring into Merlin’s eyes.

“Good, it means they don’t want to blow us up.”

Arthur licked his lips, still tingling. “I’ve wanted to do that since…well, since you climbed on board.”

“When this is all over,” Merlin said, cupping Arthur’s neck, resting his forehead against Arthur’s, his breath hot in Arthur’s mouth, “we are going to shag like Orion Gornaxes.”

Arthur smiled, silly and lightheaded (though it could’ve been the smoke) and kissed Merlin again, a quick peck. “Then you better get to work.”

Merlin pulled away, grabbed an assortment of tools that Arthur would never know how to use, and leapt back into a tunnel, yelling to Morgana over the com along the way.


End file.
